If anyone needs an idea on what to get me for Christmas, I’d like a few Mitt Romney “Jobs” posters to put around my house.
Sold exclusively on MittRomney.com. No, seriously.

Cyrus Sanati at CNNMoney wonders if Windows 8 is Microsoft’s ‘New Coke’ moment. I like that analogy and aligns with my view of it being half baked. If people don’t like the taste of ‘New Windows 8’ they can always go back into the ‘Classic’ desktop view.
Unlike Coke, I don’t think Microsoft will have the luxury of scrapping Windows 8 to go back to the ‘old’ Windows.

In light of his new role as Lincoln, I thought this scene from Gangs of New York is interesting:

I just finished watching John Gruber and David Pogue on Charlie Rose.
Quick thoughts: Pogue is a cheeseball, as is expected. Hyperbolic and weird. Gruber was composed, not very camera-friendly but gave solid answers to Charlie’s questions.
In all though, it’s really hard to give a thorough explanation of the iPhone 5 and the state-of-affairs in as little time as they both had with Charlie. I think they both did as good as job as they could. Pogue with his goofiness and Gruber with his straight-shooter responses.

Yes, Apple’s Achilles’ Heel is services. Anyone who remembers what MobileMe was (or wasn’t) knows this.
The MobileMe debacle is where you can find one of my favorite Steve Jobs quotes:

“Can anyone tell me what MobileMe is supposed to do?” Having received a satisfactory answer, he continues, “So why the fuck doesn’t it do that?”

It looked like MobileMe was behind them with the revamped, North-Carlina-server-farm-driven iCloud service, but now we’re seeing Apple struggle with maps.
This is why I’m not an early adopter with new hardware and gadgets (online services is different, there’s no risk). Looking at the situation, I’ll be keeping my iPhone 4 on iOS 5 at least until the new year. Maybe things won’t be such a mess by then.

via FBU

Are you thinking to yourself,
“Man, I need some hip-hop from 1988 to listen to while I work.”
Me too. So good.
(Thanks, Craig.)

via Devour

On August 28, Apple was granted a patent for, “Apparatus and methods for enforcement of policies upon a wireless device.” It was originally filed June 26, 2008.
From the United States Patent Office (via Natural News):

Apparatus and methods for changing one or more functional or operational aspects of a wireless device, such as upon the occurrence of a certain event. In one embodiment, the event comprises detecting that the wireless device is within range of one or more other devices. In another variant, the event comprises the wireless device associating with a certain access point. In this manner, various aspects of device functionality may be enabled or restricted (device “policies”). This policy enforcement capability is useful for a variety of reasons, including for example to disable noise and/or light emanating from wireless devices (such as at a movie theater), for preventing wireless devices from communicating with other wireless devices (such as in academic settings), and for forcing certain electronic devices to enter “sleep mode” when entering a sensitive area.

What this patent means is Apple has been granted the ability to determine when and where you can use particular functions on your iPhone. I’m curious who or what determines what a “sensitive area” is.
This doesn’t give me warm, fuzzy feelings.

I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about the new iPhone and iOS 6. I was originally planning on upgrading my iPhone 4 in a month or two, but I don’t like what Anil Dash is saying about Maps:

The classic criticism that thoughtless Apple haters use against the company is that it makes products that are pretty but dumb. Usually those criticisms are by people who don’t understand the value of a comprehensible Human Experience, frustrated by the reality that many people will eagerly trade the open-ended technologies of competitors for the simple and satisfying experience that Apple provides.

But this time, they’re right: Apple’s made a new product that actually is pretty but dumb. Worse, they’ve used their platform dominance to privilege their own app over a competitor’s offering, even though it’s a worse experience for users. This is the new Maps in iOS 6.

I use maps a lot. I used them a lot living in Manhattan and I use them a lot living in LA. Apple needs to step it up real quick on this.
I definitely won’t be upgrading my current iPhone to iOS 6. I don’t feel like being a guinea pig on this.

Wow, how much more do I prefer the Ferrari F12 to the 599 it replaced?
…no disrespect to the 599, but the F12 has those sexy 458 eyes now.